February, 2005
Dear Faithful Supporters,
Well, we’re back in Mexico and
in full swing. It’s great to be here. We are excited to be working
in the church!
We’re glad to have Cindy
Bishop back. She was in the States for a few weeks because of some
knee problems, which, praise the Lord, the doctors were able to fix
without surgery. She has been a blessing to us and the boys are
glad to have their “Aunt Cindy” back. Rolland and JoAnn Smith, our
other teammates, are in the States for a few months on furlough.
Two weeks ago we began
teaching the evangelism class at the church. In our first class, we
had 11 people attend, and 12 attended last Sunday. Several of the
families seem really excited about it. Our first evangelistic
activity is on Sunday February 13th, when we have a
special event at church to celebrate “Love and Friendship Day”
(Valentine’s Day). Our church families will invite their unsaved
friends and relatives to the service and the meal that will follow.
Bryan is doing an evangelistic
Bible study on the book of Galatians with Homer and Isabel. Homer
is 93, and it has been difficult for him to accept that salvation
comes through faith alone. Today, however as we studied Galatians
3, it finally clicked, and he trusted Christ as his Savior! It was
exciting to see him finally get it, confess his sin, and put his
faith in Christ. He said, "I am so happy!" Later he said, "Now I'm
no longer living in ignorance." His wife wasn't there for the study
today, but she is also close to accepting Christ.
There are several families in
the church that are having problems in their marriages. We have
been having a marriage Bible study once a month, but now that we see
there is a big need for this, we will begin having the study every
other week. Bryan is also doing a marriage Bible study with one of
our neighbors whose wife is having an affair.
Please pray for Arturo and his
family. On December 28th, he came home from work, and
his wife was gone. She took their younger son with her, and just
left a note for their older son. They haven’t heard from her since,
and have no idea where she is. This family has been through a lot
over the past few years, including the death of their daughter and
being threatened with stoning by their family after they came to
know Christ. This has been a shock to the entire church, and in a
way a wake up call. Arturo spoke to the other couples in the church
at prayer meeting a couple of weeks ago and warned everyone not to
be complacent in their marriages. No one could have imagined that
this would happen to this family.
We have been inviting families
from our church, as well as neighbors, over once or twice a week for
a meal, to get to know them better. We have enjoyed this time of
fellowship. We have also been getting to know some of the other
missionary families in the area.
This past week, we found out
that the owner of the building we rent for our church services wants
to raise the rent to almost double what we are paying now. At this
time we are not sure if we will find another place to rent or stay
at the current building and try to negotiate.
Toño, the man from Colima who
was electrocuted, is doing much better. His leg has healed where
they amputated, although it does have an abscess. His left hand
doesn’t have any mobility, but his right hand is working much better
now. God has also supplied much of the financial need, but there is
still a need for more.
In family news: Our boys miss the
snow! I’m sure that many of you would gladly send some of what you
are getting down here. J
Josh is developing a friendship with another boy that comes to
church. Josh speaks a little Spanish and his friend speaks a little
English, and they just make up the rest! It’s nice to have someone
close to his age for him to play with. Caleb is still very busy,
but is learning to play more by himself, and is learning to talk
more, which is a big help! They have both been very excited to play
with the new puppy we got this week. She is a black cocker spaniel
mix named Lady (at least for now – Josh keeps changing his
mind!) To see pictures, click
here.
We praise God for supplying us
with some new support. Recently, we have had two new churches and a
family take us on for support which brings us up to 94%. We only
lack $261/month!
We weren’t able to bring our
belongings down in December because of complications with getting
the papers on time. Earl Thompson from one of our supporting
churches is planning on bringing everything down in March.
Praises:
1.
Safety in our trip back to
Mexico.
2.
Our increase in promised
support.
3.
Serving God in Texcoco
4.
You who faithfully pray and
provide for us!
5.
Toño’s recovery
